Cloned disk has problems

[DDW]

Hi,

I just bought Casper 5.0 to use for keeping a spare disk cloned from
my system disk. I just tried it, then booted to the cloned disk
(changed the boot order in the BIOS).

Everything booted and appeared to load fine. I checked Computer and
the disk showed that it was the system disk (it was still "G" but had
the Windows logo), but my previous system disk - "C" - showed a small
icon that looked like two people.

??

I downloaded a couple of files, and they ended up in the download
directory on the previous system drive. A couple other things made me
think that a lot of pointers (don't know what else to call them) were
still referring to the former system drive.

So I restarted, switched the boot order again, and rebooted to "C".

Did the clone again, and this time I shutdown, took the power off of
"C" (it's in a removable bay) and rebooted.

Windows changed "G" to "C" and all is well.

I really do need to have that other drive connected so Casper can do
it's thing maintaining a clone that will be ready if my main drive
dies.

Did I do something wrong? If I connect the other drive, will this
current system drive still be "C"?

That other drive is an IDE. This one is SATA.

 

[DDW]

On Sat, 09 Aug 2008 00:16:12 -0500, DDW <[email protected]>
wrote:

I should have waited. After posting, I shutdown the computer, turned
the power switch back on the former "C", booted up and all is well.
The SATA drive is still "C", and that goofy picture with two little
people in it is gone. And the former system drive is now "G" and is
second in the boot order.

I can set Casper to maintain it and if my current system drive dies,
the other will be ready.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

What you describe is a classic case of starting up the
clone for its very first run while the "parent" OS is still
visible to the clone - pointers get established that point
not to files in the clone's partition but rather to the same
files in the "parent" OS's partition. I had been told by
Future Systems Solutions (publisher of Casper) that
beginning with version 4.0 of Casper, this would no
longer be necessary, but maybe that applied only to
clones of pre-Vista Windows OSes.

The simple solution is to disconnect the "parent" OS's
hard drive before starting up the clone for the first time.
Thereafter, the clone has its own identity, and it can be
started up any time with a view of its "parent" OS, and
there will be no problems with cross-pointed files. The
clone will refer to its own partition by the same name as
the "parent" OS did and it will temporarily re-name the
other partitions (including its "parent" OS's partition),
but as long as there are no shortcuts which name other
partitions, this is not a problem. The reverse of this -
the "parent" OS seeing its clone - does not present a
problem for the "parent" OS, and the "parent" can be
used to adjust various files in the clone prior to or after
the clone's first startup.

Your removable hard drive for the "parent" makes
disconnecting the "parent" OS's hard drive very easy.
Another way to accomplish the same thing is to put
a SPDT microswitch in the power cable of the "parent"
OS's hard drive. While the system is shut down, you
can effectively "remove" the hard drive by cutting off
the power source.

If the clone and its "parent" are on the same disk, though,
it becomes harder to "hide" the "parent" OS from the
clone for the clone's first startup, but it can still be done
with 3rd-party utilities such as Gparted (free) and
BootItNG (not free).

*TimDaniels*

 

[Timothy Daniels]

But your clone may still be "cross-pointed" to the "parent" OS's
files. (See my reply to your original posting in this thread.) If it
is, re-make the clone, but remove the "parent" OS's hard drive
before you start up the clone for its very first run.

*TimDaniels*

 

[DDW]

But your clone may still be "cross-pointed" to the "parent" OS's
files. (See my reply to your original posting in this thread.) If it
is, re-make the clone, but remove the "parent" OS's hard drive
before you start up the clone for its very first run.

The re-make was a clean clone and before I booted the clone I
disconnected the parent.

Lesson learned.

Thanks

 

[Timothy Daniels]

The re-make was a clean clone and before I booted the clone I
disconnected the parent.

Lesson learned.

Thanks

You're welcome! And if the clone booted up without having to
run "bcdedit /rebuildbcd", it would appear that Casper 5.0 at least
has the fixup for Vista's BCD done well. So... how did the bootup
go?

*TimDaniels*

 

[DDW]

You're welcome! And if the clone booted up without having to
run "bcdedit /rebuildbcd", it would appear that Casper 5.0 at least
has the fixup for Vista's BCD done well. So... how did the bootup
go?

The clone booted problem free.

I really don't need Casper because I have Acronis True Image, but I
liked Casper's ability to clone from within Windows, and its ability
to do one-click "incremental cloning"- Casper calls it "Smart Cloning"
- after that. When the clone is completed, I immediately choose to
make another and am given the option of setting a schedule for the
Smart Clone or putting an icon in my Quick Launch to manually start
it. NICE.

With Acronis I have to do a full clone every time (multiple setup
steps) and then have it reboot to perform the task - or I can restart
and boot to the bootable CD and run the clone. Either way, when it
ends I'm left with the computer waiting for me to hit the shutdown or
the restart button on the computer because Acronis assumes that I want
to pull the cloned disk out of the machine or change its master/slave
settings - and I don't want to do either. After Windows loads, it
also needs to restart before it's all done.

I had made some changes to my system last night and I ran a Smart
Clone before going to bed and it took less than 15 minutes to
complete, with a little more than half that time spent examining each
drive before doing the clone.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

The clone booted problem free.

I really don't need Casper because I have Acronis True Image, but I
liked Casper's ability to clone from within Windows, and its ability
to do one-click "incremental cloning"- Casper calls it "Smart Cloning"
- after that. When the clone is completed, I immediately choose to
make another and am given the option of setting a schedule for the
Smart Clone or putting an icon in my Quick Launch to manually start
it. NICE.

With Acronis I have to do a full clone every time (multiple setup
steps) and then have it reboot to perform the task - or I can restart
and boot to the bootable CD and run the clone. Either way, when it
ends I'm left with the computer waiting for me to hit the shutdown or
the restart button on the computer because Acronis assumes that I
want to pull the cloned disk out of the machine or change its
master/slave settings - and I don't want to do either. After Windows
loads, it also needs to restart before it's all done.

I had made some changes to my system last night and I ran a Smart
Clone before going to bed and it took less than 15 minutes to
complete, with a little more than half that time spent examining each
drive before doing the clone.

I didn't know that True Image required so much starting and stopping.
My problem with TI has been that it won't make a clone of just a single
partition - only an entire disk. I use Casper myself, currently in the
version 3.5 live CD form. For now, it suffices nicely, and the live CD
..iso file only costs $10 if you've previously registered a regular copy of
Casper.

*TimDaniels*